


Scars

by redibis



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Biblical References, Canon Gay Character, Canon Temporary Character Death, Drug Addiction, Medical Trauma, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 00:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2449412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redibis/pseuds/redibis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People have a way of changing you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scars

People have a way

Of leaving themselves

With you. His

Began in your heart

As a heavy-headedness

You couldn't shake.

In junior school you asked

The wrong questions and

Stared too long

At other boys.

The nuns were nothing

If not creative

In their punishments.

You learned to say,

"Yes, Sister Aginéis",

And, "No, Sister Maighread".

Because of your

Natural talent in the subject

Of looking very much

Like you Were paying attention,

You survived secondary school,

You survived college

(Though not for lack of trying),

And you survived uni

(If you could call it surviving).

Through all this pretending,

Play-acting at feeling whole,

When your intravenous self-loathing

Firecrackered through your body,

And exploded through

Your wrists,

You finally felt like a living person

For all of ten minutes

Until it wore off

And that was that.

Tiny blackened stigmata

From a botched crucifixion.

A martyr

For no cause;

A saint,

But no patron.

 

People have a way

Of doing things

To you. Theirs

Manifested in you

As a great undoing

And putting back together.

A rebuilding.

A reconstruction.

You wish you didn't

Remember it, but

You do. Too well.

They shot you up

With their elixir of life,

( _Uisce beatha_ —

Drink of it and

Ye shall not thirst)

But unlike the poor creature

On that unfortunate

Swiss medical student's table

That dark and stormy night,

You had already fallen

Upon the thorns of life,

And so did not bleed.

No matter how much

You wanted to.

You survived,

If you could call it surviving,

One of them was called Victor,

And you still flinch

At the name John,

The disciple Christ loved.

 

People have a way

Of meaning something

To you. His

Began in a way you didn't

Quite intend

At first, but when

You saw yourself

In his wrists

Like the split in the rock

Where Moses struck it in anger

With his holy stave

To relieve his people's thirst,

You knew anything

Was worth keeping him safe.

You started placing yourself

Between him and threats.

He finally noticed

When one of those threats

Lodged itself

In your shoulder

Traveling at three hundred

Metres per second,

And all he did was ask

Whether he had hurt anyone,

Which included you.

 

People have a way

Of changing you,

And change is rarely

So pretty or so clean

As the magazines

Or the press conferences

Would have you believe:

Visible scarring

Can be minimised

In just six short weeks

With our new

And improved

Formula. But

We all have

Our scars:

They are proof

That we were sleeping

And are now awake,

That we were dead.

And are now living.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun facts about sad poems: The Frankenstein reference was a complete happy accident, believe it or not. I actually forgot Halperin and Weston's first names until well into the second round of prettifying this poem. Then I laughed for a good ten minutes and wondered if Dominic did that on purpose. Then I got sad again.


End file.
